Ukrainian festival Saturday in Austintown

AUSTINTOWN — St. Anne Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church Parish is alive and well — and they want the community to know.

Though an annual festival was part of the St. Anne School’s activities, when the school closed four years ago, it effectively shut down the festival, as well.

“Since they closed the school it seems that this parish is dead, but it’s not,” said the Rev. Peter Tomas, pastor of St. Anne’s. “And the Ukrainians are still around in a big number. But we don’t have any activities since the school was closed, so we wanted to let the community know that we’re still alive and show them our traditions.”

To do that, they will hold a Ukrainian festival Sunday. The event will run from noon to 8 p.m. at the church on the corner of Raccoon and Kirk Roads. Admission is free.

St. Anne’s own dancers, a group of church members age 10 to 22, will be part of the festivities. Called St. Anne’s Holy Trinity Ukrainian Dancers, they will perform twice, at 3:30 and 5:30 p.m.